Access to effective remedy at international financial institutions? Challenges and Opportunities of non-judicial grievance mechanisms

Side event during the Third Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights

Organizers: Accountability Counsel, SOMO, Inclusive Development International
Date and Time: 1 December, 2014 at 10:00-11:30
Location: Palais de Nations, Room XXII
Non-judicial grievance mechanisms at international financial institutions (“IFIs”), like the IFC’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman and the Asian Development Bank’s Accountability Mechanism, offer people harmed by their projects a process for voicing complaints and investigating allegations. While these mechanisms represent some of the only access to remedy available, given the legal immunity that IFIs enjoy throughout the world, a considerable gap remains between current practice and the effectiveness criteria for non-judicial mechanisms set out in Principle 21 of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Panelists representing an IFI, a grievance mechanism, and NGOs that have used these tools to support affected communities in their struggles for justice will share their diverse perspectives on access to effective remedy at international financial institutions. The panelists will reflect on the opportunities for justice that these mechanisms offer, as well as their shortcomings, and they will make suggestions for how they can be improved. .
Program:

• 10:00-11:00: Panel

Komala Ramachandra –Accountability Counsel, South Asia Director
Mariëtte van Huijstee – SOMO, Senior Researcher
David Pred – Inclusive Development International, Managing Director
Norman Jiwan – TuK Indonesia, Founder
Alistair Clark – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Managing Director of the Environment and Sustainability Department
Lalanath deSilva – Asian Development Bank Compliance Review Panel, Panel Member

• 11:00-11:30: Moderated Discussion by Joanne Bauer – Columbia University, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs

Referensi/link:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Business/ForumSession3/Programme.pdf